Soji Kashiwagi
Born (1962-09-10) September 10, 1962
Oakland, California, U.S.
Occupationplaywright
Theatre Producer
NationalityAmerican

Soji Kashiwagi (born September 10, 1962 in Oakland, California) is a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) journalist, playwright[1] and producer. He is the Executive Producer for the Grateful Crane Ensemble theatre company in Los Angeles. He has contributed to The Rafu Shimpo with his column, "Corner Store." He is the son of Nisei playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi.

Education

Kashiwagi grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School and San Francisco State University,[2] majoring in Journalism. He also studied film production at Visual Communications (VC) and play writing at East West Players,[3] in Los Angeles.

Career

Kashiwagi's comedy play The Grapevine was produced in 1993 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.[3] In 2001 he formed a theatre company, the Grateful Crane Ensemble, where for several years he wrote and produced bilingual (Japanese and English) shows using music, song and story, to entertain Japanese American senior citizens at the Keiro Retirement Home in East Los Angeles In 2003, Kashiwagi wrote the play The Camp Dance: The Music & The Memories, which was produced by Grateful Crane, toured the Western U.S., and received the 2006 Ruby Yoshino Schaar Playwright Award from the New York/National Japanese American Citizens League.[4] Kashiwagi wrote Nihonmachi: The Place To Be – A Musical Journey, which Grateful Crane first produced in 2006 at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, as part of the 100th-anniversary celebration of San Francisco's Japantown.[5] Both Camp Dance and Nihonmachi have continued to be performed by Grateful Crane. In 2009, Kashiwagi received a California Civil Liberties Public Education Program grant to produce his father's play, The Betrayed, which will be presented by the Grateful Crane Ensemble in 2010 at the Japanese American National Museum.[6][7]

Plays

  • The Grapevine
  • The Camp Dance: The Music & The Memories
  • Nihonmachi: The Place to Be

Awards

  • 2006 Ruby Yoshino Schaar Playwright Award – The Camp Dance: The Music & The Memories

References

  1. ↑ listing on Discover Nikkei site
  2. ↑ Kashiwagi writes about himself on DiscoverNikkei.org March 12, 2007
  3. 1 2 Kashiwagi/GRAPEVINE in DHHWI History Archived 2010-01-08 at the Wayback Machine on East West Players site
  4. ↑ National JACL Convention report in Mile-Hi Chapter newsletter; p. 6 (pdf) Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine by Dr. F. Sakamoto and J. Yoshimura – 8/06
  5. ↑ Nihonmachi feature on discovernikkei.org Archived 2008-11-05 at the Wayback Machine 7/25/06 (pdf)
  6. ↑ 2008–09 CCLPEP Grant Recipients Archived 2010-01-17 at the Wayback Machine pdf
  7. ↑ "JANM Calendar of Events for Feb. '10". Archived from the original on 2010-01-30. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
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